Should a developer care about the business?

Yesterday I was in a meeting with my team lead (backend dev), another backend dev, a business analyst and a designer. The designer kept asking questions about the admin panel of the app, about the technical limitations, what is out-of-the box and what not so that she can design a solution that will not be too creative for our limitations.

And after the team lead answered all her questions and the meeting is over, the other backend says (with an annoyed voice):

“Why should I, as a programmer, care about the business. Why do I need to know about all of this stuff. I know PHP and that’s it. How can we create high performance if I care about the business”

At the time it just seemed odd to hear that from a programmer (and a backend, no less), but I said nothing. I just paused. Now, a day later, after I processed the words I ask: How can you not care about the business? How can you provide the client with the best possible solution if you do not know and understand his business, the roles, the client types, the products, the categories – everything that is business related? How?